The present invention relates to a front vehicle-body structure of a vehicle, in which part of a front side frame which is connected to a front side of a dash panel and extends in a vehicle longitudinal direction is configured to be deformed so as to bend outwardly, in a vehicle width direction, by a collision load in a vehicle frontal collision.
Conventionally, a structure in which in order to decrease a collision load against passengers in a vehicle collision, the front side frame extending in the vehicle longitudinal direction in front of the dash panel bends in the vehicle width direction and thereby absorbs collision energy of the vehicle collision is known.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-137380, for example, discloses a vehicle-body structure in which the front side frame has a bending portion which is to be deformed so as to bend outwardly, in the vehicle width direction, by the collision load in the vehicle frontal collision.
In the vehicle-body structure shown in the above-described publication, there is provided a branch frame which extends upwardly and rearwardly from a specified position of the front side frame in front of the above-described bending portion to the dash panel. According to this vehicle-body structure, since a vertical deformation of the front side frame when the collision load acts from the vehicle front is restrained by the branch frame, the above-described bending outwardly may be promoted.
However, only the above-described restraint of the vertical deformation of the front side frame may be insufficient for obtaining the proper bending of the front side frame. Accordingly, some improvement would be necessary for the front side frame in order to properly decrease the collision load against passengers.